We all know that recycling is important as the planet continues to heat up and slowly roast us alive, but can it ever go too far? That question was at the forefront of everyone’s minds after one TikToker posted a video using a titanium hip joint as a gear shifter on his motorcycle.
The video was inspired by a Reddit comment someone made in response to a photo of a titanium hip joint that survived the OP’s grandmother’s cremation. The commenter replied, “Make it a shift knob for your car,” and TikTok user richpmiflin69 took that to heart.
Walking into a garage, Rich grabs a titanium hip joint off a bench before approaching a motorcycle and attaching it where a gear shifter would go before getting on the bike and demonstrating how it works for the camera.
Commenters were impressed, with one popular comment reading, “Grandma really came in clutch for that one,” while someone else pointed out that with health-care costs, “that knob was 300k,” with someone else calling it “lowkey the most expensive shift knob ever.”
The original Reddit thread that inspired the video is also worth checking out. One commenter, who used to work in a crematorium, shared what happens after someone has been cremated: “The process, after the remains have been burned-down as much as possible, is to pull them out into a metal tray and dump them into a bin. Then go over the remains with a powerful magnet. Staples, screws and plates are collected (along with any metal items that were on their clothes, like rivets from shoes, belt buckles, watches) and you pick out the joints (like the one pictured here) and place them in a recycling box.
“After that, everything is run through basically an industrial-strength food processor that grinds the bones down to a powder, which is fed through a metal filter, which is cone-shaped. The cone captures the rest of the stuff that wouldn’t grind, namely, gold fillings. It was so tempting to pick out that gold. I could have made so much money on the side, but, damn, talk about bad juju. The gold was tossed into the recycling bin, which was picked up about once a month. The proceeds from the recycling were donated to a local charity annually. I believe this is common practice in the U.S. (not the charity part).”
Commenters also shared several other suggestions for alternative ways to recycle grandma’s titanium hip, including using it as a cane topper — one commenter has plans to use their father’s shoulder bones as cane toppers after he passes, so that they and their sister will “always have his shoulder to lean on.” Another commenter shared that a college lecturer of theirs had a hip replacement and took his old hip home in a doggy bag for his Jack Russell to turn into a chew toy, which is slightly disturbing, but undoubtedly another great example of recycling. As for the OP of the Reddit post, their uncle kept the titanium hip joint on an altar in his home.
Evidently, as long as you’re not squeamish, the sky’s the limit when it comes to recycling with human bones or bone replacements.
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